Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering (한국정보통신학회논문지)

The Korea Institute of Information and Commucation Engineering (한국정보통신학회)
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A Study on Application Usability Evaluation for Smart Toy

스마트토이를 위한 애플리케이션 사용성 평가 연구

  • Cho, Donghwan (Department of business administration, Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Choi, Hun (Department of Management Information Systems, Catholic University of Pusan)
  • Received : 2019.08.31
  • Accepted : 2019.09.18
  • Published : 2019.11.30
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Abstract

With the recent increase in the importance of software, software education is required in elementary schools in Korea. At this point, coding education combining play and education using smart toys is widely used. One of the most widely used smart toys is a block type smart toy. In this study, usability evaluation was performed to improve user's usability for block type smart toy with smartphone application. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a heuristic technique with experts, one of various usability evaluation techniques, was performed. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the buttons and the switch of the menu were not well distinguished, and the cause of the error was not provided to the user. The results of this study can be the basis for improving the usability of applications for smart toy in the future.

최근 소프트웨어의 중요성이 증가함에 따라 국내에서도 초등학교에서 소프트웨어 교육이 의무화되고 있다. 이러한 시점에서 스마트토이를 이용하여 놀이와 교육을 접목한 코딩 교육이 이루어지고 있다. 다양한 스마트토이 중 가장 널리 이용되고 있는 스마트 토이 중 하나는 블록형 스마트 토이이다. 본 연구에서는 블록형 스마트토이를 조작할 수 있는 스마트폰 애플리케이션에 대한 사용자의 사용성을 향상시키기 위한 평가를 실시하였다. 이를 위해 다양한 사용성 평가 기법 중 하나인 전문가를 대상으로 한 휴리스틱 기법을 실시하였다. 분석 결과, 메뉴의 버튼과 스위치 구분이 잘 이루어지지 않았으며, 오류 발생 시 발생 원인이 사용자에게 제공되지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구 결과는 향후 스마트토이를 위한 애플리케이션의 사용성을 향상시키는데 기반이 될 수 있다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This paper was supported by RESEARCH FUND offered from Catholic University of Pusan in 2018

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